Newt Gingrich: Campaign Issues

Where he
stands

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Healthcare

Gingrich believes that by privatizing the market, including Medicare, competition will lower prices. His plan would allow Americans to choose either a tax credit or deduction to buy private insurance.

He opposes Obama's health care reform and wants to overturn it, saying it creates new taxes, regulations, and bureaucracies.

Wants each state to establish a high risk pool to cover the uninsured.

Allow all citizens, including those on Medicare and Medicaid, to set up health savings accounts.

Would reform Medicaid by giving states the flexibility to customize their programs with a block-grant program.

Gingrich wants the focus of healthcare to be prevention.

Proposes moving from a paper system to an electronic one to eliminate fraud.

Budget/Deficit/Taxes

Gingrich supports eliminating the minimum wage.

He opposes the estate tax.

Favors an optional 15% flat tax.

He would insist on a balanced budget amendment and line item veto.

Gingrich supports tax cuts for those with an annual income of less than $200,000, as well as for those over age 65.

Renew the tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Lure businesses and investment to the U.S. by eliminating the capital gains tax, reducing the corporate income tax to 12.5%, and allowing businesses to expense 100% of new equipment.

Said regulation is impeding job creation and he would repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the Dodd-Frank Law; break up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; replace the Environmental Protection Agency with an Environmental Solutions Agency; and modernize the Food and Drug Administration.

Immigration

Gingrich supports the deportation of immigrants with no family ties in the U.S.

Believes children of illegal immigrants who were born in the U.S. have the right to remain in the country.

Says the border needs to be secure.

Would revamp the visa program.

Energy/Environment

Thinks the U.S. needs a national energy plan to reduce the reliance on oil from the Middle East.

Supports drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. and offshore. He has also called for ending the ban on oil shale development in the West.

Would replace the EPA with the new Environmental Solutions Agency.

Believes the Kyoto Treaty is bad for the environment and bad for America and has said the cap-and-trade system is ineffective in curbing global warming.

Favors building new nuclear power plants.

Supports the development of a hydrogen car and research into cleaner energy.

Foreign Policy

Believes the U.S. has inadequately dealt with North Korea and Iran.

Feels that the U.S. needs a definitive strategy in confronting radical Islamists.

Has said that America's foreign policy must be to ensure our own survival and protect countries with similar values.

Same-sex marriage

Gingrich strongly opposes same-sex marriage and civil unions. He has called homosexuality a sin.